Being an Image Consultant, I get to meet scores of people every day.. Amazing personalities from whom I learn invaluable lessons of life. One such powerful personality is Santhosh Babu, whom I met today through my work with NGO Khushii. An articulate speaker, he talked about leadership qualities in organizations. Read more to find out what leadership is all about.

Santhosh Babu is an Organization Leadership Development Consultant and has been a Keynote Speaker for large number of conferences. He focuses on Transformations related projects, Leadership development and CEO coaching. And he has this unique way of looking at organizations as ecological systems.

He spoke to us about Leadership Qualities. According to him, there are 3 qualities universal in all leaders:

Sense of Self-Awareness

Do you know why you do what you do? A leader does. A leader is someone who understands why she is following a certain direction in her life, and how she should progress on it, and definitely not get swayed by life.

Ability to Create Other Leaders

Everyone is scared of change management. It’s that era of your professional life where you grieve over the one who’s left the organization and scared silly over who’s taking over and how she’s going to deal with you going forward.

A good leader has the ability to create other leaders, most preferably mentoring a successor in the same organization. Through her interpersonal skills and leadership qualities, she is able to determine who can be a leader tomorrow, and how to use that future leader for the betterment of the organization.

Add Value and Growth to the Organization They Serve

Good leaders add value to the organization they serve through the skills and talents they have. They have wonderful people skills due to which they maintain a great professional image, and can direct others to grow the organization.

In Conclusion

A great example encompassing these 3 leadership qualities is Infosys. It was started by a great leader, Mr. N. R. Narayana Murthy. Mr. Nandan Nilekani, one of the world’s most respected business leaders, took over from Murthy in 2002. And currently, Mr.S. Gopalakrishnan is the Co-Chairman of Infosys, who is recognized as a global business and technology thought leader, and recipient of the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honor.

Leaders are MADE – we are all aware of that. So do you have what it takes to be a leader? I certainly hope so.

Love what you just read? Drop us a line in the Comments section below with your feedback – good or bad. If you have a question, or would like Ankitaa to blog about something in particular, try using the Contact Us page, or email here.